Zhang Yuying 131100030
Academic English Writing Nathaniel Jonathan Smith
Social Networking Service
With the fast development of the Internet and an increasing demand for social interactions,
social networking services have bloomed. Unlike the United States where only two or three social networking services dominate the market, i.e.: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, China has a wider variety of platforms competing fiercely for the trust of its 700 million netizens altogether. According to diversity in the key functions of these social networks, they can be categorized into four main types: the most comprehensive social network for establishing and/or maintaining a relationship; interactive question-and-answer platform for sharing and transmitting knowledge; social networks for people with same interests and hobbies to discuss films,music and books, and at last, the dating sites.
The first category is the most comprehensive one, with the largest user group and widest
coverage. People who register on this type of social networking websites mainly intend to meet with other people or keep contact with old friends through the Internet. Tencent QQ, popularly known as QQ, is a good example of this kind that primarily provides the largest online platform for social interactions through person-to-person chat as well as group chat in China. According to statistics published by an international social media agency “WeAreSocial”, QQ has accumulated
829,000,000 active accounts up to the year 2014, and QQ users spend an average 34 minutes every day chatting with their friends, relatives or colleagues by Windows or mobile QQ clients. It has won a wide recognition in China and a QQ number has graduallyevolved into a meaningful identity of
many Chinese people, regardless of age, sex and social background. By contrast, the Renren Network, which is another competitive social networking service, has a comparatively smaller user group. Formerly known as On-campus Network, the Renren Network put formidable emphasis on the student market, covering users between the ages of 12 and 22. Students manage their own pages and post pictures, messages and voice messages on them, waiting for their classmates’“likes”and comments. Although it has an excellent performance in establishing a mature social network on campus, which makes instant and convenient social interactions within high schools, colleges and universities possible, it is doomed to suffer from a loss of loyal users after their graduation.
The second type of social networking services in China mainly provide users with a
wonderful on-line interactive platform where one can raise his or her questions freely and expect practical or idealistic suggestions as well as possible answers from other people. The Question-and-Answer mechanism of this SNS not only allows netizens specializing in different specific fields to share ideas and knowledge, but also benefits the third party who has been troubled by similar circumstances and hopes to refer to the existing answers. Zhihu, whose registered users had exceeded 10,000,000 by the end of 2013 is the Chinese counterpart of Quora in America. In order to ensure the amount of high-quality questions and answers in the community, Zhihu did not open up its registration until 2013, two years after its establishment. People also “like”and “follow”experts as they do in the comprehensive social networks, but they hardly establish reciprocal communications. Instead, most Zhihu users only follow someone for pragmatic knowledge acquisition.
The third type of SNS is designed to activate on-line discussion concerning certain topics,
usually a classic movie or a newly-released album, among a group of people and allow them to share their appreciation or express dissatisfaction about a piece of work, make professional or personal reviews as well as to offer fair ratings for other people. Unlike the other two types of social networking services, it is more “stranger-friendly”: it opens to both registered and unregistered users, and has a less serious identity authentication system. For example, Douban is the most typical
SNS of this kind,whose registered members are far less than its unique visitors. According to official statistics provided by douban.com, the website welcomes up to 160,000,000 visitors per day and 68% of them do not bother to log in for simply a glimpse of book reviews or film ratings. The other 32% login in to participate in group discussions, compose a review themselves or comment under others’articles.
The last type offers on-line dating services exclusively. Such SNS are primarily designed for
singles who are looking for romance, love and marriage, but are usually not 100% free: one can active an account and upload his or her personal profile to these websites for free, but he or she has to pay for the matching service which helps to find the most compatible partner among all the possibilities. zhenai.com, for instance, is a real-name on-line dating site with thousands of success stories from connected singles in China. Its scientific matching system based on a specially-developed matching algorithm calculates perfect matches by comparing one’s profile with over 40 million active members. To determine one’s best match, it requires real personal information of every user as well as his or her detailed mating preference.Compare to the SNS mentioned above, the last type provides the simplest function but obtains the highest profit.
Generally speaking, four types of social networking services in China can be categorized
based on their key functions. The first type focuses on close interpersonal communication by creating on-line chatting opportunities. It is exemplified by Tencent QQ, the largest comprehensive SNS in China. The second type provides users with a question-and-answer platform, which aims at knowledge sharing and transmitting within the virtual society, for instance: Zhihu. The third type of SNS emphasizes its function of organizing on-line discussions around certain topics, ranging from a single song to a social event, and opens up to unregistered group. Douban is the best representative of this category. The last type is on-line dating sites, offers simple but effective matchmaking services for serious singles focused on riding long-term serious relationships and those who are marriage minded.